Mac Marshall is going to play in Houston's Minute Maid Park in 2015. It's just not going to be for the Houston Astros.

The hard-throwing left-handed pitcher said Monday that he is happy to move forward as a member of the LSU baseball team after deadline passed Friday for 2014 Major League Baseball draft picks to sign professional contracts.

"When you put things into perspective, you can only go to college once. You can sign after high school, college, junior college," Marshall said. "I want three or four years here and live my dream out here and live my dream out professionally after."

"We had to wait until 4 p.m., but once we found out I was just excited," Marshall said.

Marshall said he dreamed of playing for LSU since early in his high school days. He said watching the 2009 national championship team inspired him and convinced him that if he ever played college baseball, he wanted it to be for LSU.

"Seeing Louis Coleman get the last out, Matty Ott in the first game, watching guys like Jared Mitchell, Mikie Mahtook, I just fell in love with the school," Marshall said.

"They were the first school to contact me and I game here and just immediately knew that this is where I wanted to be."

The 6-foot-2 Marshall will look to contend for a rotation spot, with fellow lefty Jared Poche the only lock to be part of the Tigers rotation next season following the loss of ace Aaron Nola.

While Marshall remained confident in his ability, he knew replacing a dominant pitcher like Nola wouldn't be only up to him.

"Whatever role they gave me, I'm going to run with it and do my best for the team," Marshall said. "Aaron Nola is an irreplaceable guy just like Kevin Gausman. I mean you can't replace those guys, you can't duplicate what they did, so I just have to work with (pitching coach Alan Dunn) and become the best pitcher that I can be."

Marshall said he's spent most of his time in Baton Rouge with his two roommates -- fellow pitcher Doug Norman and infielder Grayson Byrd -- but all of the players hang out often. Dunn has already noticed some small things in Marshall's mechanics that he will try to fix before he pitches in the fall.

But Marshall said his relationship with junior shortstop Alex Bregman and the advice that he's gotten from a player who received similar expectations coming out of high school has helped him.

"He's told me that if you try to be somebody else or be somebody you can't be that you're going to struggle," Marshall said.

"So he just wants me to play my game and stay true to my game."

The Lilburn, Georgia, native won a Gold Medal with the Team USA National Team last summer, and knows that the kind of success that he experienced in high school -- two state championships and a 44.2 scoreless innings streak -- will be expected at a team with LSU's history.